Sykes Regains Superpole Supremacy At Misano

Tom Sykes claimed his first pole position since Aragon and just his second of the season after topping the times in Superpole at Misano. The world champion shrugged off any pain from his first lap accident in Malaysia to outpace Davide Giugliano and his nearest title rival Sylvain Guintoli.

Sykes hadn’t set the pace in any of the four free practice sessions as Aprilia and Ducati took turns at the top and as the riders set about their qualifying tyre runs in SP2, Davide Giugliano was the man to beat aboard his Panigale. Tom had other ideas though and with a superb run through the second half of the lap, became the first rider to go under 1m35, snatching pole by two tenths of a second.

The Kawasaki rider is confident of challenging for victory tomorrow given his pace over long runs and was equally delighted with the way his ZX-10R performed this afternoon.

“The support from the Italian fans has been fantastic as always. I have been happy with my pace over race distance since the start but I knew it was over one lap that I really needed to attack the circuit. The people around me are very, very special and they were able to adapt the bike so that when we put the Pirelli qualifying tyre in I was able to do well and take Superpole. I was very happy with the character of the bike and I was able to move the bike from one side of the track to the other side of the track and hit each apex as I wanted to. We are always learning and I think we have done a fantastic job. To take the circuit record from one of my racing heroes, and a very, very talented rider like Troy Corser is a very proud moment for me.”

Giugliano starts second tomorrow after edging out Sylvain Guintoli while Loris Baz, one of the paddock’s least popular teammates, will line up fourth. Malaysia double winner Marco Melandri qualified fifth and in doing so, provided a slipstream which towed Toni Elias to sixth. Chaz Davies heads an all-British third row ahead of Jonathan Rea and Eugene Laverty with Niccolo Canepa doing a terrific job to drag his EVO Ducati into the top ten.